The MU Fitness Center is a great resource for students and faculty to be able to access for free, whether people are lifting weights, running on the treadmill, playing basketball, etc. There are a variety of different activities that people can participate in in the fitness center to stay physically and mentally fit.
Although the fitness center is an amazing resource that the school offers, the facility is not accessible anytime after 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 p.m. on Fridays, 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and 7 p.m. on Sundays.
With these early closing times, it can make it hard for students with jobs or classes to focus on during the day to be able to fit in time to get to the gym.
When asked if the fitness center should extend their hours, one editor said, “I do think the gym should extend their hours. While I don’t personally use the gym on campus, a lot of people have classes all day and can’t make it to the gym before closing. Extending the hours would allow for a lot of flexibility for students to get out of class or work and be able to workout.”
Another editor shared a similar opinion, saying, “I think they should extend their hours. Some students, including myself, have later classes and obligations during the week that keep me from attending the gym. If the hours were longer on the weekends (especially Saturday), it would help my busy schedule.”
A different editor said, “I think the weekend hours need to be extended, I believe 6 a.m.-10 p.m. are good hours for a school gym during the week but I’d like to see additional hours during the weekend.”
The fitness center has some student employees, so extending hours would probably mean that more students would have the opportunity to get on-campus jobs.
When asked if they believed that the fitness center would be able to get enough hours covered by student employees to extend the facilities hours, one editor said, “I’m sure there are students who could cover those hours and who want to work after class to make some extra money. Being a college student is hard enough when it comes to finances, so everyone needs to make ends meet around here.”
Another editor said, “Yes, I think with the budget cuts that slashed my student’s hours or even jobs, having the fitness center open later would allow more students to have an on-campus job. I think they would have no problem finding people to work.”
A different editor said, “I would assume so, there are always students looking for on-campus jobs and I think the university would be able to find people to staff it.”
The earlier closing times on the weekends seem to be looked at more negatively than the 10 p.m. closing time Monday-Thursday. When asked if the weekend closing times are reasonable, an editor said, “No. I understand a lot of people go home on the weekends, but maybe part of the reason is things are closed and/or close early. I believe the gym should be open later on the weekends so students can spend their days out and about and use the gym at night.”
A different editor said, “Not really. I wish they were longer because that is when a majority of people have free time to use for their personal needs.”
The lack of accessible gym hours has some students going elsewhere to workout. One editor said, “I don’t use the Monmouth gym anymore because I prefer going at night, so I got a different membership.”
Many students are busy during the day with important obligations and only can go to the gym at later times. Students are looking for jobs on campus, if Monmouth University extended hours of the fitness center, this would make gym-goers happy and open up more jobs on campus for students.
